School Library Journal
Gr 7 Up—Drawing on Chinese language and mythology, Bernobich has created a new and exciting fantasy world. In a land where magic is a rare and coveted commodity and is the current that runs the technology, 16-year-old Kai Zou begrudgingly works in his mother's tutoring shop as an apprentice in conjuration and math. The King of Lóng City falls ill and his daughter, a friend of Kai's, seems to be out of communication's reach in a far-off city. At the command of the mysterious ghost dragon king, Kai and his friend Yún set off on the treacherous journey to deliver the news to the princess. Sophisticated readers should have no problem catching up with the tale as they join the characters and learn their backstories. While this device may be confusing at times, it makes the surprises that much more fun. A peckish griffin, a missing mother, young love, a double-crossing stranger, and a former friend who may be a smuggler add to the action, danger, and intrigue.—Genevieve Gallagher, Charlottesville High School, VA
JUNE 2012 - AudioFile
With gentle accents and a matter-of-fact tone, Michael Lee drops listeners smack into rival kingdoms in China. Through magic, ghost dragons and former street rats work in concert to aid the Princess Lian, who is studying in a distant kingdom. There she’s held prisoner in the emperor’s palace and kept unaware that her father is dying. Kai Zou, a teenager whose mother runs a tutoring shop in conjuration and mathematics, is sent on a perilous journey to locate Lian and bring her home. Lee handles Kai’s battles with villains and her developing romance with terrific pacing and humor. When he speaks the dialogue of the story’s dragons and spirit companions, he is chilling and entertaining. D.P.D. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
A ghost dragon sends Kai and his spirit pig on a quest to rescue the princess of a cyberpunk China-analogue.
Kai's grown apart from his friends since the adventure that brought him money and the friendship of Princess Lian. At least he still sees his best friend Yún daily during their shared apprenticeship, but he can't talk to her without arguing. Now the king of Lóng City is gravely ill, the magic flux powering the city's talk-phones and electronics is failing and Kai's mother is missing. His unwilling quest to save the day takes Kai across the Seventy Kingdoms all the way to the mysterious Phoenix Empire. It's a good thing Yún joins him, because Kai simply isn't clever enough to deal with all the bureaucracy the journey entails, from taxes to passports. They travel by foot, pony and luxurious train to find Princess Lian, who can surely help them. As an adventurer, Kai is on the passive side and tends to let the world happen to him, but this is a minor quibble. He also frequently refers to the adventure that brought him together with his now-estranged friends, but since those events were from a short story ("Pig, Crane, Fox: Three Hearts Unfolding" from the fantasy anthology Magic in the Mirrorstone, edited by Steve Berman, 2008), readers are more likely to be frustrated then familiar.
Overall, the blurred magic/technology boundary gives a compelling flavor to an adventure well worth reading. (Fantasy/cyberpunk. 13-15)
